Customer Reviews

Monster Cable TGHZ-4RF 2 Gigahertz 4-Way Low-Loss RF Splitters for TV & Satellite

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

You know, I think there's a sort of gulf of knowledge between those who are "in the know" with respect to AV equipment and those who aren't, and the reviews for this product certainly reflect that. Some people can't stop praising the thing long enough to consider whether their commentary is going to be useful to a potential customer while others seem to be overflowing with acrimony at the fact that this device did not, in fact, change their life on a deep, meaningful, metaphysical level and they are still filled with all of their previous hurt and ennui, and with cable reception that's no better, to boot. That being the case, I'll direct my attention towards trying to explain under what circumstances you would want to buy this device and when you probably wouldn't.

The basic question is, "Does the splitter do what it's advertised to?" The answer to that is a resounding yes. This splitter is miles above and away from anything your cable technician installed in your home. It will lose significantly less signal strength than the terrible metal-plated signal leaks you may or may not have sitting in your attic right now. If you need a low-loss splitter, this is the one you should buy. I have several of them distributed throughout my house, supporting my utterly insane wiring scheme, and they're performing brilliantly.

The question, then, for the lay person, is why anybody would need a device like this. Let me stress - if you are not watching HDTV, you DO NOT NEED THIS DEVICE. Save your money and buy a lower end splitter. The reason why you need a high signal ceiling (2GHz is 33%-100% higher than what you get on a typical four-way coaxial splitter from your cable company) is to let as much data travel through the pipe as possible, and if you're just watching regular old standard definition television, you're not going to see any appreciable gain from this splitter over any other decent model with a lower ceiling or a slightly higher loss rate.

Moreover, if you're having trouble with your reception, this item is not necessarily the obvious answer to your problem. Specifically, this splitter will do nothing - absolutely nothing - if your house and devices are not wired with RG-6 coaxial cable (as opposed to RG-59, which most older homes would have). This splitter will do nothing to fix a signal that's already degraded by the time it gets to it. The only reason you should buy this device at all is as a component in a general wiring strategy involving high quality coaxial cable (easily purchased from MonoPrice) and maybe some signal boosters.

For the enthusiast, then, I will say that this item does everything that it's supposed to, does it well, and, so far as I have been able to tell, does it at roughly average price. For the average reader, however, before buying this item and expecting it to solve all your problems, and to avoid a reaction like some of that of the negative reviewers here, make sure to educate yourself on all the down-and-dirty details of cable wiring and make sure that this splitter is the real solution to your problem.

2 words, YOU BET!!!
I was having a problem with my newly installed cable TV.
I had light and dark horizontal bands that would come and go, mostly come.
I had read that the splitters cable companies use are cheap and unsatisfactory.
I decided to spend a few extra dollars and go for the Monster 2 Gig 4 way splitter.
I installed the splitter and VIOLA! no more bands, perfect picture!
I also use Monster Video 2 coxial cable for the connection from the wall to the splitter and from the splitter to my DVD recorder.
If your picture quality is lacking and you're on the fence not wanting to fork out a few extra bucks, believe me it is definitely worth it.

Previously Adelphia had setup my cable using two daisy chained 2 way splitters. This caused my HD signals to drop very frequently, especially on HBO. It was so bad that I couldn't watch the HD feed at all. I was told that this would not solve my problem from a local high end A/V store, but they were dead wrong. Once I replaced the 2 splitters with 1 4-way splitter my signal was perfect. In fact, the reception on the analog stations also improved dramatically. To ensure the best signal I have also added other hardware: 1 Motorola Drop amp, 1 Monster 4 way loss loss splitter, then a Monster PowerCenter HTS 2100 with video filtering.

I switched from a 3-Way radio shack splitter to the 4-way Monster Splitter and even though the signal is now split 1 extra time, the picture has improved on all TV's and the high speed internet speed has improved also. I though I was going to need an amplifier, but there was no need...Hope this helped

The review below about the Adelphia splitter working better than this one is misinformed. All splitters cause signal loss of the split signal -- this is unavoidable (unless the splitter also has a powered amp). Typically this is approximately 3.5dB per split (for 1GHz or less, more above that). The Adelphia splitter was no doubt a 3-to-1 split: the incoming signal was split once and one of the split signals was split again. Thus one output is -3.5db and the other two are -7dB (2 x 3.5). What the Monster splitters do is split the input evenly across all outputs, which really only helps when there are 3 outputs resulting in a -5.7dB drop across all outputs instead of one -3 and two -7. The 2- and 4-way splitter outputs are the same as you'd get from Adelphia or otherwise (either split once or split twice). Clear as mud?
The extra bandwidth (up to 2GHz, most splitters are 900MHz or 1GHz) is another reason these splitters are preferrable to the cheapies.

I had been using a radio shack splitter and amplifier for years (the <a href="http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2103093">
1-to-4 Bidirectional Cable-TV Amplifier</a>). It did a good job, but recently began to fail after many years of service.

I replaced it with the Monster Cable splitter. However, the splitter is not a signal booster, so I also added a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000066E6Y/ref=cm_aya_asin.title/002-8833922-8904059?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=172282">
Motorola 484095-001-00 Signal Booster</a>.

This combination made reception much better right away. (Note: the Motorola signal booster has higher amplification than the Radio Shack amplifier.) When the signal booster was coupled with the Monster Cable splitter, reception was great - better than it had ever been. I now receive channels clearly that were always fuzzy with horizontal or vertical bands in the past.

MONSTER has created a great mythology about "smooth sonic performance" and all kinds of other benefits to using their gold-plated, quite expensive splitter. The main difference in splitters is in the accuracy of the internal construction, whether or not a circuit board is used, and the quality of the shielding box construction and the transformer core material.

However, there is one thing to remember, and it's a biggie: if you have Digital Cable, the subtleties of rendition in either video or audio are virtually *independent* of the quality of the box. Normal cable is "analog"... if you have interference or a weak signal, you get bars, snow, crackly sound, either all the time or periodically. Maybe your poor quality splitter needs to be replaced. With digital cable, you either "get it" or "you don't". When you have weak signal, you will have horribly choppy, blocky looking video (or none at all); same goes for the audio. If everything is working OK, upgrading your splitter won't incrementally improve your audio or video quality. In fact, nothing will, except perhaps a new TV or a better Set Top Box with better output circuitry behind the digital-to-analog decode stage.

Adding an expensive, overpriced splitter with gold plated hoohaws may stave off corrosion 5 years down the line, but so will a thin layer of silicon grease. It certainly won't give you "smoother sonic performance" or any of those "subtle" differences that they claim are "worth it."

Just so you know....

I am using three of the Monster 2GHz splitters where the first (1:3) splitter input is connected to a Motorola Signal Booster (15 dB low noise amp) output. Two of the three splitter outputs are connected into Monster 2GHz 1:4 splitters, for a total of 8 outputs for cable runs to various locations throughout the house. The 3rd output (of the first 1:3 splitter) is reserved for the new Verizon FiOS TV data interface, i.e., a Motorola Network Interface Module 100 (aka NIM 100) providing data communications via the MoCA (Multimedia Over Coax Alliance) standard interface which communicates with the Motorola Set Top Boxes. Since the MoCA standard uses the higher frequencies, from 900MHz-1.5GHz, it is ideal to use the 2GHz bandwidth splitters, to ensure low loss for data transmission across all splitters and cable runs. Also, the Monster splitters pass the signals in the reverse direction, so these work well with Cable Modems, which operate at the lower end of the bandwidth. Bottom line, the Monster 2GHz splitters are the best on the market.

For additional information about setting up cable TV splitters to support a Verizon FiOS TV configuration, refer to the following web site:
http://www.entropic.com/pages/technology.html

I am staring at a US Govt bid document. I can't believe they are wasting our tax dollars on this shiny object. Cable and over-the-air TV signals only go up to 1GHz, so the rest of the 2GHz bandwidth just lets in the interferors eg. cell phones, microwave ovens etc which actually mess with the TV signal. It's true there can be extra loss in the different ways a signal can be split, but it really is unnoticeable. It's more important to minimize the number of connections, cable length and use good cable and connectors in your setup. However the 24K gold does look great and if I had to have a splitter exposed to view, this one would surely impress my friends and neighbors, just like my other gold connectors, Bose speakers and monster speaker cable. That might be worth the extra $20.

This is a great splitter and provided my system with a much better picture than the one's Adelphia provides. I own a very sensative 51" Sony HDTV so I need the best signal I can get after my split. This splitter provided that for me. The previous review is wrong & I'm not sure where those numbers came from but the front of my splitter 2Ghz Monster Splitter says low-loss from 5mhz-1Ghz = -3.5dB and from 1Ghz-2Ghz -4.9dB. What this means is that it's the same low-loss as the Adelphia splitters considering the Adelphia splitter only goes up to 1Ghz. Along with the extra bandwidth, the overall build of the connections are better as well. If you have an HDTV or mid-range to high-end Direct View, this is the splitter to get. For those splitting their Internet cable line to watch TV in your PC room, again, this is the one to get.